JVG just needs to manage his personnel better, and maximize their strengths how so? i think that they are being maximized fairly well. Luther is a spot up shooter (although he has worked on his ball handling and finishing its still not great). battier is what he is...a space maker and defender. howard is what he is. Chuck is a hustle player. rafer is used the way he is supposed to be (i.e. handling the ball). bonzi and snyder are the two questions..but when bonzi is in there he has been used how you would expect (low post).
This is where you lose me. You have to believe that Rafer's "defense, playcalling, tempo and flow of the game" are far, far superior to any other average point guard in the league to make up for his horrendous shooting. The best way I can make my point is this: The Dallas Mavericks have three strong scorers in Dirk Nowitzki, Josh Howard and Jerry Stackhouse -- shouldn't they be emphatically thrilled to start a guy like Rafer, who brings "defense, playcalling, tempo and flow of the game", over Jason Terry? I know Terry shoots 45+% and near 44% from long range, but isn't shooting like the 3rd, 4th or 5th priority to being a point guard? And on the flip side, wouldn't the Rockets pass on Terry in favor of Rafer because Rafer is a great clubhouse guy who runs a tighter point? If Rafer misses two shots yesterday, which makes him 5-15 (very close to his average and certainly not an abnormal evening for him), it's an entirely different game. I don't understand how anyone can possibly acknowledge that he played so well without pointing out the large difference between this game and his season average with regard to shooting the ball. I could go on and on about Rafer and his role (which I know I already rambled plenty), but out of respect for the purpose of the thread, I'll hold off. He did have a good game yesterday.
My post from the "What are you listening to now?" thread in Hangout: Teardrop, by Massive Attack. Inspired by Rafer "I CAN make it!!" Alston.
Rafer's problems lie almost entirely in the fact that he is scared sh*tless of contact in the lane. He could be a great PG if he would just get past this mental roadblock. Parker really made his leap to being a great player when he stopped taking so many floaters and jumpers and started going all the way to the glass for his layups, sometimes even accepting contact and getting to the foul line. Rafer could learn A LOT from this.
As my post showed above: Team: Pnts/Ast/Rebounds/Steals/TO Spurs: 19/7/2/3/2 Nuggs: 16/7/7/1/4 Suns: 29/8/3/2/1 Mavs: 12/5/1/1/4 Kings: 22/8/3/1/2 Nuggs: 15/4/5/1/2 Lakers: 20/4/5/1/1 Those are his last 7 games...so apparently they are attainable, b/c he's obtained them. People (not necessarily yourself) are so shortsighted when hate clouds their views. Rafer has played MUCH better since that stretch of games where he was obviously struggling big time. The tone of threads now, should be "I hope he can keep it up" rather than, it's only one game...
Isn't Rafer 31? Is he really going to learn this now? It's truly a mystery that I don't think even Rafer understands. He claims that going to the hole used to be his game in the neighborhood. It's weird.
So you DO think Rafer played one of the greatest games in Rockets history and in all western civilization? Wow! I can see JVG reading that comment and definitely looking at Rafer and saying to him - WOW absolutely do not allow that to go to your head Rafer. That is a fan going way over the top. Keep your feet on the ground and forget it and get ready for the next game. And I would agree with JVG on that one. I guess Tmac and Shane must be playing record setting games once every other game then. New Rockets Hall of Fame material every week! Look guys he did good. He did real good. But am I gonna see it again or am I gonna see the guy who shot like crap a while back or the guy whose turnover rate per minute in late December for 6 games was worse than Vspan's? I really hope he continues to do well but this is as bad as hating on him after one bad game. Is it too much to ask for consistency?
Again, in his last 7 games, against QUALITY opponents, he's been fairly consistent. He had one really bad game against Dallas, offset by a great game against Phoenix, and then the rest were good games. *I'm* hoping he can keep it up.
Seriously, you don't think Rafer's been a good defender all season? I never really noticed until last season when Wesley and JVG both commented on his defense, saying he's very underrated. I began noticing that he's clearly not a lockdown guy, but very solid. He's shown it this season too. His passing is not in question right? I mean, we all know Rafer's a good passer, no disagreements? His asst/to ratio has always been solid. So for me, if he's doing a good job defending, a good job passing and is hitting 37-38% of his 3's (considering the number of attempts), I'm happy. You wouldn't be happy getting that out of our PG?
Anyone see Chucky Atkins had 29 and 15 assists against Deron Williams and the Jazz, leading his team to a tough road win? ...Im just sayin'...
Atkins is playing very well lately... over the last 13 games he's hitting 50.4% from the field and 42.6% from three for 13 points and 6.3 assists. That's on 8.8 shots a night. To put that in perspective, Rafer averages 1 more point (14) on nearly 5 extra shots (13.4 shots a night). However, tough to say how much the Grizzlies new run-and-gun, no defense style is creating wide open layups -- I haven't been watching Memphis. If I didn't know any better, I'd say the complete-180 style was implemented by Jerry West to pump up the value of the players he wants to sell. Atkins' three-ball efficiency is kind of hard to argue with though since wide open looks are created for Rafer pretty consistently.
FWIW, Rafer Alston is right now ranked 17th in the league among point guards in Sportsline.com's player rankings (16th if you don't ignore the fact that Dwayne Wade should be a shooting guard). http://www.sportsline.com/nba/playerrankings/regularseason/PG Other than Chris Paul at #21, those rankings aren't bad either.
He's 81st in FG% among point guards this season ... want to know what really makes that sad? Bob Sura is 98th.
Obviously there's no question his shooting has been horrendous this season. I do think the other aspects of his game stand out well enough to make up for some of that poor FG% as the ranking indicates (just as a parallel example, defense is a major reason why Shane is ranked 12th among SFs even though he only averages 10.8ppg). That said, let's just hope CD is right when he says he thinks Rafer has turned a corner in the last few games. He does deserve his kudos for his performance last night. Btw, has anyone noticed that Rafer almost always makes a three point attempt when it's coming off an offensive rebound? It's almost like you know it's going in before he even rises up to shoot.
I am too, but "Rafer having the greatest game in Rockets history" ??? That is the only thing I am saying is Fluff. I remember 13 in 35. I remember Clutch City. But in a few months this will only be a very good game played by our starting PG, not HOF material. Keep it up Rafer. Looking forward to a very good game by you tomorrow night. If you can make it a great game then more power to ya!
And VSpan is 91st. That FG stat doesn't tell the hole story. As I pointed out on the prior page, his performance including his FG% is noticably higher against tougher teams. On average Rafer performs better against .500+ teams than <.500 teams, and better against the top 5 teams than .500+ teams (unlike 3 years ago while in Miami when his best was against weaker teams). He performs better with more minutes, better on the road than at home, reportedly much better 3pt % in the 4th qtrs, and better with only 1 days rest than 2, better with 0 days rest than 1. I think he's a fighter, the type of player you want in the playoffs.
I think that sort of hammers home the point. When you're barely ranked higher than a second-round rookie who has played 180 total minutes in the NBA and is consistently regarded by his coach as terrible, you got major shooting problems. That's interesting to hear the new reason Rafer is great -- that he shoots better than his average of 36+% when he faces the top teams. Let's see if that continues to ring true. Hope so ... if not, I'll be curious to learn what the next positive trait is that makes him indispensable.
